Hypotheticals can help clarify and give new insight to the moral issues surrounding immigration. Below, we list some hypotheticals that make the case for open borders:
- Starving Marvin (due to Michael Huemer) makes the libertarian case and addresses the Killing versus letting die and welfare objections.
- Haiti ICE (due to Bryan Caplan) compares the plight of an American trying to return home from Haiti with that of a Haitian who wants to enter the United States.
- The master race (due to Bryan Caplan) considers the question of how far foreigners may be harmed to preserve the economic interests of natives.
- John and Julio (due to Bryan Caplan) considers a situation of two people competing for a job interview and the morally permissible ways for one to prevent the other from appearing for the interview.
- No blacks need apply (due to Michael Clemens) compares differential outrage at being told that the US government prevented a person from taking a job on account of race versus nationality.
- Drowning child (due to Peter Singer)